New Hampshire Library Association Executive Board Meeting December 15, 2009 at 2:00pm Local Government Center, Concord Present: Alison Zaya, Amy Graves, Andrea Thorpe, Ann Hoey, Barbara Prince, Carl Heidenblad, Danielle Fortin, Diane Lynch, Judy Haskell, Julie Andrews, Kate Russell, Linda Taggart, Mary White, Michael York, Randy Brough, Sarah Leonardi, Sean Fleming, Sondra VonderPloeg, Steve Butzel Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 2:00pm by President Judy Haskell. Minutes: The minutes from the September Executive Meeting will be reviewed and approved at the February meeting. Officer Reports President s Report: Judy Haskell has little to report as it is her first meeting as President. Judy is looking forward to working with Steve and Mary to plan the upcoming year. Judy reports that the meetings for next year will be: February 16, April 20, June 15, August 17, October 19, and December 21. All meetings will be at 2:00 pm at the Local Government Center. Membership Chair: We need to fill the membership chair position. The Local Government Center handles much of the paperwork, so the person in this position can spend more time networking and promoting NHLA membership. Mary Ahlgren, the Director of the Hall Memorial Library in Northfield might be interested; Judy will ask. Emily Weiss, Membership Chair for READS, was mentioned as a back-up option to consider. Sondra asked about a confirmation when someone joins NHLA. Most of the group doesn t remember getting confirmation, but Judy can get in touch with the Local Government Center to verify membership if someone is uncertain. Vice President s Report: Mary White has nothing to report, but does have some ideas about the fall conference (see New Business). Treasurer s Report: Carl Heidenblad distributed the Treasurer s Report. Carl reports that the audit is nearly complete. He should have a complete report by the February meeting. The auditor would like us to approve a procedure manual. A draft of the manual was sent around before board change. We should plan to talk about the manual at the February board meeting and hopefully approve it at that time. Past President s Report: Steve Butzel discussed the format of previous December Executive Board meetings; it is usually a meeting used for introductions and to brainstorm ideas for the year ahead. Steve also suggests the group review the NHLA goals and adjust them as necessary for the upcoming year. Steve asked if everyone was familiar with the NHLA wiki http://nhla.pbworks.com Linda requested instructions for posting to the wiki. Steve will make sure the Executive Board has the correct permissions to post to the wiki. The wiki is a good place for committees and sections to collaborate. Reports for the board should be posted to the wiki.
NELA Representative s Report: Alison Zaya reports that NELLS (New England Library Leadership Symposium) will be postponed to 2011 due to financial issues. The NELLS committee is looking into alternative funding and possible format changes. Counterparts is transitioning to an electronic format with the possibility of a session at the NELA conference. In the past, Counterparts was an opportunity for library leaders to meet about particular issues or topics. Counterparts was cancelled this year due to lack of interest. The NELA program at the State Conferences will be Innovative Patron Services." It is a topic that would appeal to all librarians. Since it is a broad theme, the session can be adjusted to not overlap with similar programs that a state conference may have. ALA Representatives Report: Steve Butzel reports that he will be attending ALA Midwinter in Boston, MA. Contact Steve with issues or concerns that he should be aware of. One of the issues Steve will be focusing on is the Patriot Act; he will also be following the tweets from various meetings in order to keep people aware of pertinent issues. Old Business Small Library Summit: Steve reports that the planning for this conference is going well. It will be held on April 16 for librarians who typically can t afford to attend the larger conferences. Seventy-five attendees from libraries with 3000 residents or less will be invited to participate. There will be a small fee for all attendees, but NHLA will be underwriting most of the cost. Go to the wiki for more information. Lobbyist: Randy reports that he, Steve, and Andrea have decided on a lobbyist after interviewing three candidates. Their choice is Teresa Rosenberger from Devine, Millimet. Her fees are $4,500 a year, which is very reasonable. We are also responsible for her out of pocket expenses, but Carl expects they will be reasonable or perhaps none. Andrea mentioned that they chose Teresa because she has office staff to support her and that the groups she represents are generally pretty decent (nurses, preservation society, etc.). Teresa would like to help us frame our long term legislative agenda. Steve mentioned that Teresa could help us with strategic planning depending on her fees for that service. New Business Treasurer s Council meeting: A meeting is being planned for all section treasurers on February 16 before the Executive Board meeting. Judy will send out information to the appropriate people. Transportation to ALA Midwinter: There was a brief discussion about NHLA providing a bus for people attending ALA Midwinter. There does not appear to be enough interest, so it will not be pursued. Patriot Act Resolution: Diane Lynch presented New Hampshire Library Association s Resolution on the 2009 reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act. She explained that the document is very similar to other state s resolutions as they are based on ALA s version. Diane checked the sources used in the resolution and confirms that they are valid. So far thirty-nine states have passed a resolution.
There is a general understanding that the Patriot Act will be extended for a short time until Senate is able to address it. Randy motions to accept the resolution. Andrea seconds. Motion passed. The NHLA Resolution will be sent to the appropriate ALA representatives. Disaster Assistance Improvement Program (FEMA): A representative from FEMA would like New Hampshire libraries to promote the website http://www.disasterassistance.gov/ Steve recommends posting a blog entry and he will tweet about it. The group agreed. Kids Books in the Arts: Ann is looking for commitments from funders for this program. Randy motions to commit $3,000 from the CD settlement money. Andrea seconds. Motion passed. Budget Questions: Randy asked Carl if there is money in the budget for Advocacy; there is no specific line. Andrea asked if there is fund for legislative money and whether that can be used for Advocacy. Steve requests that Carl get the current board up to speed on the budget Goals: Steve suggests taking a look at the NHLA website for a list of organizational goals that were established about three years ago. More specific goals will be posted on the wiki. Come prepared at the next meeting to brainstorm additions and/or revisions for the coming year. Fall Business Meeting Ideas: Mary is planning the fall business meeting and is thinking about having rapid book reviews as the topic. She is looking for volunteers to rapidly review five or six books. The tentative idea is to have the meeting in Concord, perhaps at the Local Government Center. Mary also suggested selling jewelry as a fundraising alternative to the typical baskets. Section Reports Academic: Sondra VanderPloeg reports that the academic listserv has been discontinued. The archives were full of spam and not useful, so they were not kept. The Google Groups and discussion pages are not being used either and will probably be discontinued. Karin Heffernan is trying to compile a list of email addresses for all academic library employees. The goal is to use this list for communicating with academic librarians to set up meetings and foster discussion. Sondra will be working with Steve to get more information about the Academic Section onto the NHLA website. CHILIS: Amy Graves discussed a new idea that CHILIS is considering to make money making note cards out of the old reading program posters. Steve asked if the CHILIS budget is okay. Amy responded that they are just trying to find new sources now that they are no longer selling t-shirts, etc. One of the CHILIS AccuCut machines will be moved to a different location where it will hopefully get more use. They are working on conference planning.
ITS: Julie Andrews reports that the IT Section had their quarterly drop in meeting in Hanover where they learned more about Evergreen. They have more people joining their Google Group and are working on planning NHLA conference activities. READS: Linda Taggart reports that the fall READS conference grossed $1,600. The section is up to 191 members. The READS-To-Go program has five new kits and two more on the way. A READS-To-Go blog has been set up. The READS Award of Excellence went to Pamela Smith, Systems and Technical Services Librarian at the Howe Library in Hanover. The committee is reworking the language in the eligibility criteria for clarity. YALS: Ann Hoey reports that there is a new YALS board and that the group is working on planning programs for the conference. YALS is accepting nominations for the FLUME award. Committee Reports Advocacy: Sarah Leonardi spoke with someone at WMUR about posting a public service announcement. They were not open to that possibility and suggested that we put information on the event calendar on their website. By-Laws / Ways & Means: Sean Fleming reports that they raised $160 raised through the conference raffle. Center for the Book: Andrea Thorpe reports that the Big Read will be starting in March. The book will be To Kill a Mockingbird. Conference: Judy (asking for Amy Thurber) asks if the various sections would like an informational table at the conference. The general consensus was that each section would. Andrea reminds everyone that program proposals need to be in by Friday, December 18. Continuing Education: Barbara Prince reports that the results from a recent questionnaire indicate that NH librarians would like training in emerging technology. To that end, Barbara has been planning a program on affordable alternatives to pricey software. The current plan is to have the program at Hooksett Public Library during the last week of April. Andrea recommends charging $5 per attendee to guarantee attendance. A copy of Barbara s proposal was distributed to board members. Intellectual Freedom: Diane Lynch is working on revising the intellectual freedom manual. John Kinnaman from Center Harbor is planning to help. The manual was last updated in 1998, so information about the Internet needs to be added. Much of the information remains current, but small portions will need to be modified. Legislative: See Old Business NHAIS: Danielle Fortin provided a summary of State Librarian Michael York s report to the NHAIS group. The State Library budget continues to be cut and as people retire they are unable to hire replacements. The library is working to get a new automated system in place for smaller libraries; so far sixty libraries have expressed interest. They are talking to Lyrasis and Equinox about unit pricing for a system that is affordable, but functions as needed.
There were some questions about why ancestry.com was cut. Michael explained that is was the least used and they had to cut something. They hope that will be the only database that will be cut. The State Library is hoping to start digitizing the newspaper collection. The next NHAIS meeting will be in May. Danielle plans to have her notes from the meeting up on the wiki as soon as possible. There was a question about the EBSCO contract; Ann Hoey responded that it runs through June 2010. NH State Librarian: Michael York reports that he and other State Library employees met with Lyrasis today to discuss data conversion on an automated system. Lyrasis will be setting up a test library for experimentation with an Evergreen system, which will hopefully be functioning by early February. The Ellsworth, ME area has nine libraries that will be going live with Evergreen through Lyrasis soon. The State Library is suffering from retirements; two more people retired this month. That brings the total over the past year to five senior librarians. These positions are not being replaced. Revenue is up for the first time in eighteen months. NH State Library Liaison: Ann Hoey reports that public libraries will be getting kilowatt meters via the van. Mouse pads promoting the US Census will be sent in January via the van. Scholarship: Sarah Leonardi reports that they have worked out a payment plan for an outstanding loan, which will be $50 a month. We have received the first check. The next meeting will be held at the Local Government Center on Tuesday, February 16 at 2:00 pm. The meeting was adjourned 3:30 pm. Respectfully Submitted, Kate Russell